This application relates to courier waybills, and, in particular, courier waybill assemblies which comprise a plurality of plies or parts, at least one of which is adapted to be adhesively affixed to a package being shipped. Usually such assemblies comprise a minimum of three plies, one of which is retained by the customer shipping the package, one of which will be retained for the records of the carrier or courier service, and the other of which is affixed to the package being shipped.
Usually the waybill comprises more than three plies, as the carrier or courier service will frequently want at least two, one for its permanent records, and one to be used as a control record so that the shipment may be more readily traced from the point of shipment. Further, an extra ply will frequently accompany the package so that it may be initialled by the recipient and removed by the carrier or courier service as evidence of delivery.
In some cases a customer may want to ship more than one package to the same destination, and this necessitates the use of a separate multi-ply waybill for each package, with the result that three or four waybills may have to be completed and secured to the packages, with corresponding numbers of record plies being removed and retained by the customer and the courier service. If all packages are for shipment to the same destination, this results in a good deal of duplication and wastage of both time and forms, and a multiplicity of record copies must be removed and retained by the various parties and usually grouped together to indicate that several packages are included in the same shipment.
Waybills of the type described are usually provided with a backing sheet having a pressure sensitive adhesive on the outer surface thereof, which adhesive is covered by a protective release liner over the entire surface thereof. The release liner is adapted to be peeled from the adhesive surface of the backing sheet to expose the adhesive for direct application of the backing sheet, and components adhered thereto, directly to a package to be shipped.
The need to utilize a plurality of separate waybills for separate satellite or serial packages being shipped at the same time to the same destination may be avoided, according to the invention, if at least some of the plies are provided with machine readable bar code indicia for identification purposes, and if the backing sheet includes a plurality of readily removable (e.g. die cut) labels formed over a portion thereof so that the labels releasably adhere to the release liner, and are automatically removed from the backing sheet with the release liner is the release liner is peeled from the adhesive surface of the backing sheet. Preferably the labels are formed from an interior portion of the backing ply, leaving at least the perimeter thereof undisturbed so that the backing ply, and the portion of the waybill connected thereto, may be securely adhered to the package to be shipped by means of the undisturbed adhesive covered surface of the backing ply. The labels which may, for example, be three or four in number, may then be peeled from the release liner and adhesively affixed to one or more satellite or serial packages being shipped by the same customer at the same time to a common destination. Each label will bear bar code indicia which corresponds to the indicia on other parts of the waybill, so that the packages bearing the labels may be identified and associated with the main package carrying that part of the assembly which travels with the package and which identifies the addressee, the customer initiating the shipment, and pertinent information pertaining thereto.
In addition to the bar coded labels, other labels may also be formed from the backing ply which contain shipping instructions (for example, providing for Saturday delivery, etc.).
In addition to the bar code indicia applied to the labels, the labels may also be identified by number to indicate that the package to which the label is applied is a second, third, or four package, for example, of a group shipment.
The invention also contemplates a method of shipping using the waybill described above. The method comprises the steps of: (a) Separating the release liner from the backing ply, which simultaneously separates the die cut labels from the backing ply, the labels being retained on the release liner. Then (b) applying the pressure sensitive adhesive from the backing ply to a first package being sent to a given address so that the at least one dam ply with common bar code indicia is connected to the package. (c) Removing a label with common bar code indicia thereon from the release liner, and then applying the label with common bar code indicia thereon to a second package being sent to the given address. And, after steps (b) and (c), (d) shipping the first and second packages at the same time using the same carrier.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide an advantageous waybill--and method of use thereof--for use with satellite packages. This and other objects of the invention will become clear from the detailed description of the invention, and from the appended claims.